Abstract [en]

The purpose with this project has been to determine immigrant attitudes towards traffic safety, as well as to explain to what extent these groups differ from the Swedes. The results showed that immigrants were less likely to use seat belts when driving in built-up areas, than Swedes. On the other hand, there was no difference between groups when it came to using seat belts outside populated areas. Immigrants were also less likely to use of safety equipment for children in cars. The general opinion was that children are safer travelling in the rear seat or sitting on the lap of an adult holding them. The study also included a number of questions about speed and compared with Swedes the immigrants were less inclined to exceed speed limits and had a more negative attitude to this fact. However, the longer respondents had lived in Sweden, the more usual it was to exceed speed limits. In general, immigrants were extremely satisfied with the situation for vulnerable road-users in Sweden. The same applied to the traffic conditions, an opinion that was strengthened the longer one had lived in Sweden. The results also showed that the term immigrant is ambiguous in itself since relatively large differences between groups depend on other factors such as nationality, age, gender, education and attitudes. Finally, the study recommends traffic safety information campaigns targeted at immigrant groups. This is not motivated solely because they are less safety-conscious than Swedes. It is often the case that Swedes and immigrants need the same message. But the information that goes out to the general public through the normal channels does not reach immigrants to the same extent as it does to Swedes. Another advantage with targeted information is that the information can be formulated with consideration to the target group's background knowledge and language capability.